Best ball season does not have to end (ever). After we are done with the seasonal best ball, daily best ball contests are arguably even more fun to play. Daily best ball is very similar to DFS, except instead of using salary we get to apply the drafting skills we’ve built up all summer. I’ll be focusing the majority of my in-season action on these contests as:
- There is a severe lack of content surrounding these tournaments, meaning that there are sizable edges
- You can draft a strong lineup days before the contest locks. This is much more schedule friendly than ordinary DFS, where lineups built on Friday are usually dead money by Sunday morning.
- Drafts are quick, lasting just six rounds
The variety of contest available this year also adds a ton of fun. Subtle changes to contests rules can have a dramatic impact on the way we should be approaching these. And happily, the field doesn’t necessarily respond to these differences in the ways that they should. I’m going to write about different contests every week with:
- Analysis of the key overall factors impacting the slate
- A breakdown of the tournaments available on the Underdog lobby and ways to apply the conclusions of the overall analysis to each
- Examples of drafts I’ve done applying all of the above
QUICK PRIMER ON THE RULES
Given that its a daily tournament, the lineup rules are quite different from seasonal. There are no bench players and you must draft and start: one quarterback, one running back, two wide receivers, one tight end, and one (non super) flex. This is obviously very different from seasonal best ball where we want to draft the best player available with very limited concern for filling out our starting lineup in the opening rounds. Only being able to fill out your starting lineup matters.
Once the drafts are finished, every team in the tournament competes in a shootout to score the most points on the slate (similar to regular DFS). Other than that, the scoring settings are identical to the rest of Underdog’s contests.
